For this yr’s Underground Rap Awards, I’m writing in Jaeychino’s title for Rookie of the Yr. Certain, there are Kurrco-thirsty caricatures (and real abilities) which have put up greater numbers, however throughout 5 tapes in 12 months, DC’s monotone auteur has refined his handiwork. In January, Jaeychino’s ARTWORK trilogy opened to pitch blackness with a remix to Nino Paid’s “Ache & Potentialities” by some means extra harrowing than the unique. The place Nino exorcizes grief in plainspoken spurts, Jaey lets it metastasize and gas his urge for food for reprisal. Since then, his composed drawl has made a house out of sprightly synth thrives and maudlin vocal chops. ARTWORK II’s “Residence Depot,” from June, is the sort of morning commute music that makes your fuel pedal really feel a bit lighter. After August’s 15-track warmth verify WATCH THE THRONE, Jaeychino has already resurfaced with ARTWORK III, the primary opus of his profession.
Almost each observe scorches for lower than two minutes, every corroding into the following and infrequently shedding momentum. The operatic detonation of “LIFE 2 REAL” is Jaeychino’s most theatrical work thus far: Wailing angels buried underneath mammoth 808s mourn the lives he eulogizes, his ceaseless movement so pressing you image the studio crumbling round him. The title observe packing containers elysian melodies in an echo chamber of drum’n’bass as Jaey makes use of the cracks in his voice to convey adversity (“Man who gon’ do proper for the youngins?”). The observe’s solely blemish comes within the type of a painfully misguided Trump endorsement. However just like the earnest avenue poets that precede him, Jaeychino weaves assertions of vengeance right into a quilt of anguish, illustrating the brutal cycle wherein he feels trapped. For each bar in memoriam of a cherished one, there’s one other across the nook beckoning dying.
Jaeychino’s ear for enlivening manufacturing offsets what spills from his reminiscence financial institution. It’s laborious to listen to his exact deadpan over producer SJR’s caustic beats and never assume of basic Lucki; the ghastly haze of “RPS” recollects Watch My Again-era gloom. ARTWORK III propels the comatose wisp of this sound with symphonic polish and post-Opium vitriol. The pindrops of piano that add delicacy to “AND1” and “30” make the calamity of centerpiece “FAKE PS” really feel monumental: As metallic clangs violently, DMV compatriot ST6 JodyBoof drops in to toss grenades on the street. “I’m ridin’ with Jaey, I do know we gon’ blow,” he erupts, “Black truck with ’em shooters, I really feel just like the pope.” This observe’s industrial churn runs via the complete tape, surging into “PR4Y” and the crackling Snow Strippers collab “STURDY.” “TRIS” takes on an incandescent sheen that resembles Tibetan bowl rituals; its heat emanates like sunrays via a display screen door. Not often throughout the tape’s half-hour runtime does time really feel wasted.
